From the Heritage Foundation, I'm Tim Desher, and this is Heritage Explains.

President Trump's recent visit to Brussels to address the NATO summit has been generating mixed messages.

This is what leadership looks like to me. This is the president of the United States leading the NATO alliance,

making sure that they're following him, that they're coming behind,

and meeting their obligation.

NATO has survived a lot of things, from wars to terrorism,

but it's never had to survive a threat from a president of the

United States. Yeah, I've long said that by the end of President Trump's time in office, I think

that what we're going to see is a stronger NATO alliance. And so all of these people who are

clutching their pearls saying, oh, my goodness, President Trump is using tough talk with Angela

Merkel. She needs it. And a lot of what he said in that meeting yesterday, that's been on the

minds of everybody who is in the room. He was just the person who was saying it in a way that

was believable. I don't think he understands what alliances are. Everything is, what are you

going to give me and what am I going to get out of it? I don't think he understands all the other things that come with alliances.

The president has been vocal in his criticism of NATO, saying it is outdated,

and countries are taking advantage of our contributions.

And while the president reaffirmed our commitment to NATO

and continuing the decades-old security

agreement, he has said that if NATO allies don't pay more, we might do less.

We have countries within NATO that are taking advantage of us.

With me, I believe they're going to pay.

And when they pay, I'm a big believer in NATO.

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